Germany’s raucous New Year’s celebrations led to a typically busy night for emergency services overnight and into the early hours of Wednesday. 

Police and firefighters across the country reported at least four fatal injuries related to explosions the next morning.

In several cities, emergency services were pelted by pyrotechnics — a recurring trend in recent years. One Berlin officer was severely hurt and required surgery.

The capital’s university hospital said it was treating eight more people with serious hand injuries and that “the night is still young” shortly after mid-afternoon. He later updated the number to 15.

Berlin police issued an update in the early hours of Wednesday, praising the implementation of new no-fireworks zones in the city center — but still reporting widespread issues outside those areas. 

“We had to make around 320 arrests, in several cases rescuers and police were attacked [with pyrotechnics],” Berlin police spokesman Florian Nath said in a video released. line. Berlin police were escorting firefighters into the city for their own safety, a resolution police said contributed.  

“We also have a severely injured police officer who appears to have been hit by an illegal firework,” Nath said, adding he underwent emergency surgery overnight.

Cologne police said two police officers were injured by illegal fireworks and that fireworks were fired at police officers and firefighters. In Leipzig, an organization of about fifty other people attacked the emergency services. Similar reports and photographs have emerged in parts of Hamburg and elsewhere.

Fire crews scoured the country to fight smaller fires: trash cans, houses, cars, garages and other objects discovered near sidewalks.  

In Neuwied, a small town in western Germany, police suspect a chimney display sparked a warehouse fire that grew in length before being reported shortly before 1 a. m.

“At the scene, a fire was discovered in a giant warehouse where, among other things, wood was stored,” the Neuwied/Rhein police said in a statement. Affected citizens were emergency evacuated from nearby homes and the fire was brought under control, according to the news release.  

“Work to extinguish the fire continues,” police said in an update at around 6 a.m. “The severe heat build-up also caused damage to nearby buildings.” They estimated costs to be in “a medium six-figure range.” 

“The cause for this fire is most likely also a New Year’s firework. Investigations into this continue,” police said, a matter of hours after having responded to a similar blaze in the town center. 

Police, medical professionals and firefighters have more than once recommended a firework ban, or at least some restrictions on the mass New Year’s Eve fireworks amnesty practiced in Germany, in recent years. The practice was shut down for two years amid COVID-19, albeit then to limit public gatherings.

The German Pyrotechnics Association said the deaths and serious injuries can simply be attributed to the illegal use of fireworks.  

“These harmful DIY paintings have nothing to do with legal and controlled New Year’s fire paintings” through authorized handlers, said board member Ingo Schubert.  

He argued that serious injuries were “almost out of the question” even with the use of approved fireworks and said it was up to the government to crack down on illegal fireworks, not those sold in stores. food.  

msh/sms (AFP, afp)